Technical Field
The invention relates to sharing workflows across instances in a project tracking environment. More particularly, the invention relates to a mechanism that allows individuals to share their team's workflow with other teams in their organization on different instances in an enterprise or network, or with external parties in other organizations via a workflow marketplace.
Description of the Background Art
There are different types of workflows, e.g. production workflows use predefined sequences to guide and control processes whereas, in an ad-hoc workflow, the user determines the process sequence on the fly. Workflows can be implemented as workflow solutions with which users interact, or as workflow engines, which act as a background service controlling the information and data flow.
Workflow management includes the following functions:                Visualization of process and organization structures;        Capture, administration, visualization, and delivery of grouped information with its associated documents or data;        Incorporation of data processing tools, such as specific applications, and documents, such as office products;        Parallel and sequential processing of procedures including simultaneous saving;        Reminders, deadlines, delegation, and other administration functionalities; and        Monitoring and documentation of process status, routing, and outcomes.        
A workflow consists of a sequence of concatenated, i.e. connected, steps. Emphasis is on the flow paradigm, where each step follows the precedent without delay or gap and ends just before the subsequent step may begin. This concept is related to non-overlapping tasks of single resources. A workflow can be thought of as a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, a group of persons, an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms. Workflows may be seen as any abstraction of real work. For control purposes, workflows may be a view on real work under a chosen aspect, thus serving as a virtual representation of actual work. The flow being described may refer to a document or product that is being transferred from one step to another.
Workflow concepts are closely related to other concepts used to describe organizational structure, such as silos, functions, teams, projects, policies, and hierarchies. Workflows may be viewed as one primitive building block of organizations.
A workflow management system is a computer system that manages and defines a series of tasks within an organization to produce a final outcome or outcomes. Workflow management systems allow the user to define different workflows for different types of jobs or processes. For example, in a manufacturing setting, a design document might be automatically routed from designer to a technical director to the production engineer. At each stage in the workflow, one individual or group is responsible for a specific task. Once the task is complete, the workflow software ensures that the individuals responsible for the next task are notified and receive the data they need to execute their stage of the process. Workflow management systems also automate redundant tasks and ensure that uncompleted tasks are followed up.
Workflow management systems may control automated processes in addition to replacing paper work order transfers. For example, if the above design documents are now available as Autocad, but the workflow requires them as Catia, then an automated process would implement the conversion prior to notifying the individual responsible for the next task. This is the concept of dependencies. A workflow management system reflects the dependencies required for the completion of each task.